Posted on 01/17/2006 7:07:26 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
BREAKING ON THE AP WIRE:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.
Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people trumped federal authority to regulate doctors.
How did Roberts vote?
Sounds like Kervorkian is a free man...
No word on the vote yet...stand by.
That's what I want to know. Who voted how?
Who are the three? Scalia, Thomas, Roberts?
And the culture of death continues its slow march forward.
Don't know...when it crosses, I'll let you know.
How did that happen when there are only 8 members currently sitting on the Supreme Court?
O'Connor hasn't officially retired yet.
I think O'Connor is staying on until her replacement is seated.
o'connor is still there until alito is installed.
Sandy's still hanging on
I think O'Connor is still on. She doesn't officially leave until someone replaces her.
The God-given, unalienable right to life is dead in America.
The horrors to follow will not be pretty...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.
Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people trumped federal authority to regulate doctors.
That means the administration improperly tried to use a federal drug law to prosecute Oregon doctors who prescribe overdoses. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft vowed to do that in 2001, saying that doctor-assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose."
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the federal government does, indeed, have the authority to go after drug dealers and pass rules for health and safety.
But Oregon's law covers only extremely sick people -- those with incurable diseases, whom at least two doctors agree have six months or less to live and are of sound mind.
this is a matter for the states
Kevorkian is jailed in Michigan.
More devastating than a tsunami, more tragic than a Hurricane, more destructive than a Earthquake.
Be AFFRAID, be very affraid.
Not much that can stop it now as we meld further into one global economy/order.
I wonder if the same rationale will be used in abortion cases.
Who determines the suicide??? The patient, patient's family, or the doctor???
So a doctor can help a patient die with lethal drugs, but can't help a patient live with medical marijuana. Go figure.
Roberts was in the dissent.
The right to life is no more a 'matter for the states' than religious liberty, freedom of speech or assembly or any other fundamental God-given right that is spelled out in the Bill of Rights.
Our legal and political leaders have come loose from all of the most important moral moorings.
"The authority desired by the government is inconsistent with the design of the statute in other fundamental respects. The attorney general does not have the sole delegated authority under the (law)," Kennedy wrote for himself, retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer. Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented.
"One-of-a-kind" suicide law. Not for long.
True.
And by the way, there is a vast difference between the parts of Oregon law that let a terminally ill person make their own free choice to end it all, and the laws that let a pregnant woman kill her child on a mere whim.
I agree EV!!!!!! This is absolutely devastating! OUr supreme court has just ruled Euthanasia is legal! We are going to hell and fast!
So much for the lock-step Catholic voting block.
Kennedy's an asshat.
Please put in the header. :)
Not so vast as you claim.
Roberts passes first "conservative test" as Chief Justice.
Kennedy is the going to be the killer on that court.
I hate to say it but he is even worse than O'Connor.
Kennedy has moved even farther left in recent years.
Reagan should have picked another conservative after bork instead of picking that liberal kennedy from the 9th circuit.
Didn't even have to be someone as great as bork. Just a conservative.
Ok, state law trumps federal law if it is to kill human life, but state law does NOT trump federal law if it is to save human life.
Man, O man.
So does this mean attempted suicide would no longer be against the law? Obviously if someone actually commits suicide, it would be a moot point.
That sums it up: the more disposable human life can become, the more liberals/Democrats celebrate. They must be partying big time at DNC.
If Stevens and Ginsberg would resign in the next couple of months, it wouldn't really matter if Kennedy became a member of the Communist party. The amount of damage he could do would be severely limited.
Even had Alito been seated, the decision would have been the same, but 5-4.
This is a horrible law, but I have long thought the way to overturn it is to take it to the voters again after a lengthy period of voter education.
Before you know it suicides, assisted suicides will be happening more and no one will do anything about it!
Oregon Ping
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
Sounds like the right decision to me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.